According to my book "Japanese Grammar" it says the title san is used for saying Mr. and Ms. and is commonly used, and young childrens first names then chan are used so like EX: for a young person I guess it would be like [first name] chan and if he was older it would be whatever his[ last name] was then san. Sama is for saying san to multiple people and I THINK kun is for little girls. And Sensei is for teachers, or anyone who is a professional. Personally I Would just call the person san. Wouldnt want to come off as a jerk. Hope that helps. ( oh yeah maybe someone with a little more expertise could verify if this is 100% accurate.):)

Goals:
1) Have decent proficiency in Japanese, enough to get around/talk/read/write.
2) Visit Japan for a week or so one summer.

-chan （ちゃん） is typically for girls or very young children of either sex. -chan can also be used between friends--my friend Madoka used to be called Ma-chan by her friends for a long time; parents might call their kids -chan for several years

-kun （君/くん） is typically used for young boys, but I have heard it used with girls too, but rarely--it is also used by an older man talking to a younger (esp. in work situations--ie: a boss talking to a young employee)

-sama （様/さま） is VERY respectful--I doubt you would use this at all on a daily basis--employees would NOT call their boss blahblah-sama--The emperor is a -sama, royalty in ancient times was -sama--so the word implies great respect and politeness-- One thing, though, when addressing a letter or postcard, you should write NAME-SAMA, not -san, it's just the way the Japanese do it

-san （さん） is very neutral and polite--it is best practice to call people -san until you are asked not to (You: Tanaka-san, ogenki desu ka? Tanaka: Tanaka de ii desu. (Just 'Tanaka' is fine.))

-sensei （先生/せんせい） is for teachers and a few other professionals (I know doctors for certain--you can call your doctor 'sensei')--I believe martial arts teachers are called 'sensei'-- It implies that the person you are talking to has more knowledge about 'said area' than you--'Sensei' is one of the only honorifics that can be used without a name attached to it (ie: You can simply say "Sensei"... but you couldn't just say "chan" or "sama" to someone)

Last edited by Kates on Mon 09.26.2005 8:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

now, i want to know what ~shi means. i watched the drama densha otoko this weekend, and densha otoko's otaku friends kept calling him 'yamada-shi,' and that's something i've never heard before. granted, i'm not up to speed on japanese geek speak. i had to look up 'moe' a couple of minutes ago.

Harisenbon wrote:-shi（氏/し） is a suffix often used in news articles, or when speaking to a high ranking private citizen. For example, whenever Bill Gates is in the news, he is referred to as ゲイツ氏.

hey, thanks for the reply. i actually learned something. so, i wonder if 〜shi is an ironic title among otakus or something. i get the jokes about shibuya slang, but the akihabara stuff just goes right over my head (^^;